How did Mayday fans shape a Starbucks coffee culture moment?
A Starbucks store next to the StayReal limited art exhibition in Shanghai drew attention after employees held up signs riffing on Mayday lyrics, including lines about being content with this cup and sad people needing Starbucks. Staff also prepared limited cup stickers, merchandise perks, and a call-out service, keeping fans waiting in line entertained.
StayReal, the streetwear brand co-founded by Mayday lead singer Ashin and artist No2Good, drew large crowds of fans to the exhibition, and its pop-up store sits beside that Starbucks. The signs looked like ordinary internet slang to passersby but read as Mayday references to fans, who briefly wondered whether an official brand collaboration was coming.
Recently, StayReal, the streetwear brand founded by Mayday's Ashin and artist No2Good, held a limited art exhibition in Shanghai, drawing a large number of fans to visit and take photos. Surprisingly, however, a Starbucks store next door to the exhibition unexpectedly went viral thanks to its staff's playful show of support. Employees held up creative signs incorporating Mayday lyrics, prepared limited-edition cup stickers and merchandise perks for fans, and even offered a joyful "call-out service," keeping fans waiting in line laughing nonstop. This mutual outpouring between fans and Starbucks employees not only eased the boredom of waiting in line but also won the brand considerable goodwill.
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Recently, netizens photographed employees of a Starbucks store standing at the entrance, holding up signs such as "This cup is enough to make you content," "Sad people need a cup of STARBUCKS," and "Falling in love with STARBUCKS ING" to promote the store. Once the footage spread, it quickly caught the attention of many netizens.
To ordinary passersby, these slogans might just look like expressions borrowed from internet slang, but Mayday fans could tell at a glance that the promotional phrases in the employees' hands were actually riffs on their idols' signature works, prompting fans to wonder: could Starbucks be doing a collaboration with Mayday?
After all, many coffee and tea beverage brands have recently announced partnerships with popular celebrities, leveraging star power to drive traffic to their brands and boost offline store sales. From this perspective, if Starbucks really did officially announce a collaboration with Mayday, fans would hardly see it as a bad thing.
However, fans who visited the scene explained that what netizens saw was not actually a warm-up for a Starbucks x Mayday collaboration, but rather a mutual outpouring between fans and Starbucks employees.
It is understood that StayReal, the streetwear brand co-founded by Mayday lead singer Ashin (Chen Hsin-hung) and renowned Taiwanese artist No2Good, is holding a limited art exhibition in Shanghai, attracting a large number of fans to visit and take commemorative photos.
Interestingly, the pop-up store StayReal opened during the exhibition happens to be right next to a Starbucks, and some of that store's employees happen to be Mayday fans too. So, seeing the long lines in front of the StayReal store next door, these workers started playing along in unexpected ways.
Netizens waiting in line on site said that during StayReal's limited event, this Starbucks prepared exclusive limited-edition cup stickers for Mayday fans. At the same time, as long as the order number ended in "5," customers could receive an extra free piece of merchandise.
However, a person familiar with the matter revealed that these limited-edition merchandise items were made by Starbucks employees who applied for funding themselves, and were not official collaboration merchandise launched by Starbucks and Mayday.
In addition to the limited-edition perks, what delighted fans most was the "call-out service" provided by the Starbucks workers. Customers on site said that when their orders were ready, employees would take the finished drinks to the entrance and loudly call out for customers to pick them up.
But since some customers used custom nicknames when placing orders, at the event scene people could occasionally hear Starbucks employees shouting things like "Is the lady at number XX, 'Be Chen Hsin-hung's Beast of Burden,' here?" and "Lady at number XX, 'Long-haired Pipa Player,' your drink is ready"—slogans that made the orderers want to die of embarrassment and left onlookers struggling not to laugh.
Many fans said that while waiting to enter, hearing the various hilarious nicknames shouted out by the Starbucks workers and receiving the limited-edition merchandise they had prepared with such care really helped ease the boredom of the long queue. "Starbucks, you're too good at this," "Major points," "Starbucks is maxing out the emotional value."
Fans who had not yet visited, after seeing videos shared by others, said outright that the fun interactions between employees and fans would not only prompt people on site to place orders just to experience that moment of joy and boost the store's sales, but also invisibly enhance Starbucks' brand image.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
